I Hate Line Jumpers!

I had the worst experience at a store last night, which will remain nameless (although I bet most of you can guess which store I’m talking about).

The store is apparently undergoing a renovation, and because of such, nothing was where it usually is. The HBA section was next to the groceries, the greeting cards were with the electronics, it was a disaster. My quick trip to the store to grab a few things turned into an hour-and-a-half excursion and almost a panic attack. Grrr.

After numerous employees could not help me find thank you cards (the bulk packages of thank you cards, not the individual cards which would obviously be with greeting cards), I gave up and headed to the cash registers.

Of course, every checkout line (all four of them open out of the 48,573 registers available) was at least six to eight people long and moving at a snail’s pace. I took a deep breath and decided to go with the express lane since I only had 3 items – a gift card, makeup, a new dog toy for Cooper – even though the line was about six people long.

I swear, I ALWAYS choose the wrong checkout line, ALWAYS. I always pick the one that looks like it’s going the quickest, but as soon as I get in line, the cashier flips on her light because she needs change, or someone needs a price check, or the customer is using twelve thousand coupons and is throwing a fit that ONE won’t scan. (I actually started choosing the checkout line that looks like it’s going the slowest to see if that helps my luck, but it hasn’t.)

Anyway, of course there was a hold-up about five people ahead of me. I could feel my heart rate starting to increase. After standing in the same spot in line for at least five minutes (no exaggeration), I heard a woman shouting, and I mean SHOUTING.

She was headed over to the registers from the grocery section with another woman and about four kids. There was a cashier who was about to open a register next to my line, but it was obvious that she was still counting her drawer and wasn’t ready to open yet.

The woman yelled to the cashier, “Are you open?” The cashier responded, “No, it’s going to be a while.” The woman yelled back, “What? It’s going to be a while? Where’s your manager? Get me a manager!”

THEN, the woman proceeded to walk back and forth in front of the registers screaming for a manager until she found one. She demanded that the manager open the register immediately so she could check out. Apparently she couldn’t wait like the rest of us. So what does the manager do? He opened the register and checked the woman and her friend out, despite the fact that there are dozens of other people waiting in lines, who have probably been waiting for fifteen minutes or more.

I was livid. It was so blatantly obvious that everyone in my line was anxiously waiting for the cashier to open the new register, but this woman apparently thought she was better than the rest of us and didn’t have to wait. It literally took EVERYTHING in my power to hold back from saying something to this woman, like, “Hey, who do you think you are?” I also considered saying to the manager, “Hey buddy, what the heck is wrong with you?” I am very proud of myself for not reacting in such a way, and for only letting out a “Are you freaking kidding me?” under my breath.

And side note, for those of you who don’t know the RULE about checkout lines, I’ll fill you in: When a new checkout line opens, and there’s a long line of people waiting in another checkout line, you don’t just run up to it and cut off the rest of the people who have been patiently waiting. You let the people who have been waiting go to the register that just opened. And cashiers, you should say, “I’ll take the next person in line,” and refuse to check out line jumpers.

Jeez people, what happened to manners? I mean, I learned this when I was five!

Readers – have any of you ever experienced anything like this? How do you handle these kinds of situations?

5 Responses

I guess I don’t know exactly what store you are talking about.
But I guess it was some big-box store. My advice is stay away from there!
I cannot imagine why you even stayed around, nothing is worth that kind of stress.
The store manager was definately at fault, and you should take it directly to him.
People act like idiots because it is allowed.

The worst is when you go into a smaller store (a convenience store, say), and you hold the door for someone, and that someone gets in line ahead of you, and then proceeds to hold up the line. When someone holds the door for me, I walk in and let them get on line first.

@Emily: The manager was wrong, but really had no choice. If he didn’t do it, it probably would have led to some sort of accusation and/or frivolous lawsuit attempt. I’m not saying it didn’t play out as it should have, but he was trying to calm an obviously irate person down. Unfortunately the only people that can actually do something about it are consumers not the employees. I have no problem confronting someone in a store for acting irrational or completwely rude. If an employee attempts that, they risk losing their job or getting written up. “The customer is always right” is filling some people with this insane sense of self entitlement that they really shouldn’t get.

What’s the rule in a place like CVS, that has two or three cashiers behind a counter? In other places I’ve been, people make one line and go to the first cashier that’s open. This makes sense to me, but I don’t see people do it often in the Capital District. Sometimes I attempt to start a single line – sometimes people catch on, but other times people just start forming their own separate lines.

You should also include those who like to form a line to the side of the line, in hopes either some kind soul will let them in, or they can jump in front of people. I have only encountered these types of people in Albany, but I’m sure it happens elsewhere.

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